It is often necessary to provide either a patient, or a doctor who may be new to the patient, with information relative to such patient's health condition and any prior or existing treatment relative to such condition. This information needs to be comprehensive, accurate, and as complete as possible. It should include such facts as the patient's name, address, telephone number, names and telephone numbers of prior or personal physicians, as well as emergency telephone numbers, medical insurance numbers and any information related to pre-existing conditions for which the patient has been treated. Also, it should include prior diagnosis, medicines prescribed and currently being used by the patient, diets prescribed for the patient, medical history and current hospital data. Any allergies which the patient might have should be revealed, and detailed instructions previously given to the patient with reference to his condition as well as prescribed treatments, should be made known.
Relying on memory to supply this information is risky and, in some instances, results either in failure to supply correct information, or omission of pertinent information which would be of assistance to a treating physician. Such errors or omissions could be of vital importance to a patient's treatment.
A patient frequently will experience a job related move, either temporary or permanent, from a location in which the patient was being treated by a previous physician to a new location and the necessity arises of providing any new physician with all pertinent information concerning the patient, his maladies or sicknesses and the current treatment which had been provided in the old location.
Work related or pleasure travel have also provided conditions where a patient on a trip, for example, is confronted with an occurrence related to his physical condition and/or previous treatment. Here again, information which is preferably in some form such as a written description of the various features and aspects as hereinbefore described should be available readily, even including situations where the patient is personally not in a condition to pass this information on to a treating agency or physician. Additionally, older patients frequently are unclear as to their medications, and the present invention assists them in supplying the right information, and aids medical personnel in providing proper care to such patients.
The present invention teaches a patient medical information and education program and container which preferably is in easily conveyable form, such as wallet size, so the patient can carry it on his person, to provide the most complete information concerning the patient to either a succeeding physician or to a person or persons confronted with an occurrence or accident which prevents the patient from transmitting this information.
It is also a well known fact that an attempt to carry all of this significant information in one's memory for transferring to another person presents a serious risk of overlooking some factors or information which otherwise could be of substantial help to treating persons under all circumstances which might be present.
It is accordingly an important object of the present invention to overcome such aforementioned difficulties so that a patient can be more quickly treated by one to whom the previous information is available and in some circumstances this information, as transmitted, might even be used in saving a patient's life by eliminating time-consuming diagnosis and/or other factors which might affect treatment of the patient.
It is a further object of the invention to provide, in simplicity and detail, to the patient such information pertaining to any physical condition he might have warranting treatment as also to incorporate instructions to the patient as to any restrictions or suggestions on his actions and to indicate when and how much of a prescribed medicine should be taken. The latter information is of substantial interest for a new physician with reference to a patient or to facts arising in an emergency situation.
It is a further object of the invention by use of drug-identification cards, to alert a patient regarding possible side effects of a specific drug, and to offer suggestions for lessening or eliminating such possible side effects, and recommendations as to recognizing any serious reaction.
Apropos of this situation, it is interesting to note steps which have been taken by pharmacists and pharmacy groups to improve patient use of medicine and a prescribed dosage thereof, as well as a failure to partake of a medicine at a prescribed time interval. In this connection, it is to be noted that current literature indicates that more than 1.5 billion prescriptions are dispensed every year in the United States, but that many are not used properly according to medical authorities. A newspaper article to this effect is contained in the WASHINGTON POST Newspaper of Saturday, Aug. 18, 1984, on page D1.
It is also known that currently manufacturers and distributors of medicine are including detailed information on medicines, peculiarities and usages thereof, in literature made available to the medical industry and such information is normally enclosed in containers of a medicine as shipped to pharmacies in order to indicate valuable information for the use of the pharmacist as also conditions of use to a patient. This literature, however, is normally retained by a pharmacist and is not transmitted to a patient for whom a prescription is filled. It is a still further object of this invention to attempt to alleviate this lack of information transmittal to a patient.
Apropros of this, for some medicines, information concerning the same is placed on individual cards adapted for transmittal to a patient and containing details of the medication and its use and possible problems which could occur in usage of the medicine, dependent upon a patient's physical being, or reaction to a particular substance.
While the present invention will be specifically described in a single preferred form of construction, obviously the invention is not limited to this specific structure and variations in specifics of details of construction will be obvious and within the scope of the invention as defined by the claims herein.